Fixed Gretel

Fixed Gretel
Originally uploaded by sarasneeze

Please disregard the mess on the floor around me.

As you can see, I finished a Gretel. The first time I made this, it ended up much too floppy. I felt like the pink mushroom from Mariokart (don't act like you don't know which one I mean). I could pull it down all the way over my face and have it act as a kind of mask. Three months later, I went back and ripped the offending extra repeat, and now I have what might be the perfect hat. I have no idea what gauge I got (I am too lazy to measure), but the fabric is dense and soft and smooshy.

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Damask Rose

Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda Teague

Mods: added an extra twist after the crown. I liked the way that having three and then two made the pattern flow a little differently and seemed to give it a slightly different form on my head before tapering off. Otherwise, I just followed the instructions as written for the medium size.

Notes: Love this pattern! The increases after the ribbed part and the decreases within the cables are just perfect. It's no surprise that I love most things Ysolda does, but the combination of my favorite yarn and a really well-written pattern made it a delight to knit. It does take longer than another beret would because you are cabling every other stitch on every other row, but it'd also be a good pattern on which to learn cabling without a cable needle.

Here is what it looks like with too many repeats, and here is what it looks like what it's done. Much better, no?

I'm back?

It would appear that I fell off the face of the earth a little bit there. I'm not so good at remembering to blog frequently, and I'm pretty terrible at taking pictures of things in a timely manner. However, I'd like to change that. So, I'm going to start updating again! I can put more information on here than I do on Ravelry, and have a little ego boost if I notice that people are looking here.

(I'd also like to write better, and rumor has it the best way to do that is just to practice. So here goes!)

For my summer cardigan, I have learned how to cable without a cabling needle. (At least, I think I have. This might not work out for a project with real, traveling up the whole sweater, aran type cables, but since it's working for me now, I'm counting it as a learned skill.) I have to say, I love it. It seems like it's such a daredevil feat... when you come to the part that needs to be cabled, you move the stitches off of the needles, work a little bit more, and then pick those free floating little loops back up and carry on. It's like parachuting, but for knitting. Every other time that I'm working, one of my worst fears is the stitches falling off of the needles, since that would cause damage that, to me still, is irreparable. (I'm still scared of crochet hooks, so ladders are my enemy). But when I'm cabling, that definitely changes. I like the ballsy, gutsy way I feel about my stitches now, as though they'll do what I tell them to, no matter their needle status.

In other news, short sleeves take much, much longer than they should.

Grrr

Working on my summer cardigan, a lovely pattern (it's called Cherry, and is titled "Summer Cardi" on my ravelry projects page), with a lovely cotton yarn (Rowan Cotton Glace to be precise). I cast on for Ravelympics, finished the back in record time, and then got hung up on the front. I got really excited, and thought I was almost done with the front left side! And then realized that, in a complete move of utter genius-ness, I had forgotten to do the neck decreases.

D'oh.

The good news is that, since the closing ceremonies have already happened in Beijing, it's already late. So I won't feel like I'm really losing anything by making it perfect. It's just still frustrating.

(This is also the yarn that was used for the back and the first side of another teeny tiny cardigan, before I realized that I hadn't modified the pattern correctly, and it was never going to fit. So if I've ripped that far already, then what's the big deal?)

Once I install my camera onto my new computer, I will upload some FOs. One of these days....

New Project!

The Rowan sale at Loopy finally got the better of me. I managed to splurge in moderation though, and now I'm starting on my Inga hat, in Rowan Felted Tweed, colors Clover and Straw. I'm still swatching right now, but I got such glee when purchasing them. Where's the logic in that? It's 85 degrees outside, and I'm positively dancing in place about working with wool. ::sigh:: Oh well. A hat will be a nice and easy project to take to the beach tomorrow, without getting too sweaty.

People

I just (well, an hour ago) got home from spending a few hours knitting in a lovely little yarn store, where I met some very fun people! Battlestar Galactica definitely came up in conversation, as did some other nerdy things, and the fact that we all definitely like knitting (hello, spending hours on a Friday evening sitting around with people we barely know) makes for a pretty easy ice breaker. Yay for ravelry as a way to connect to people!

Whoop

This is my attempt to get into knitting blogging.... I once had a personal blog, and then decided that the only people I really wanted reading about my life (like, my friends), were the people who were actually a part of it, so I stopped. However, now that I've discovered my love for knitting, I'd like to share that with the world (and also hopefully get some helpful comments along the way.)